UPDATE – Turns out MASS MoCa has opened a shop on Spring Street (read below for details), but in the Images building, not at the former site of the cleaners. I’ll leave the photo of the cleaners’ old site up, anyway, in hopes of inspiring someone else to open a Spring Street business.

Kudos to MASS MoCA for pulling this off in time for reunion weekend. I hope that the store will have a strong beginning and a shiny future.

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Original post (with an added link, thanks to Ronit):

Rumor has it that MASS MoCA may be opening a shop/information center here (the cleaners have moved to Rt. 2):

14 Responses to “MASS MoCA shop?”

This is not something that will excite students, I imagine, but I think it is great for both Williamstown and North Adams – as is anything that increases synergy between the neighbors. I imagine MassMoca believes that certain visitors to Williamstown who might not be aware of MassMoca will be clued in by this prominent store front. Plus I imagine they will sell some pretty cool stuff. I hope, still, that more student-centric offerings come in to the other Spring Street vacancies (and Subway and the Pub returning are both great on that front, I imagine those were both HUGE holes the last few years and I do hope both are open in time for next semester … anyone know how the Pub building construction is coming by the way?).

If the recent North Adams burrito place that just opened is a success, that would be the PERFECT candidate to expand to a Spring Street store front. A place like that, especially if open late, would do a killing during the school year.

I imagine that this location is great for them- for those who haven’t seen it, it is actually in the new entryway to Images- a great fusion for images and MassMOCA- I imagine the people who go to images are probably the same people who would visit Mass MOCA. The new entryway is great- it was sort of a temporary art gallery for student work before the Mass MOCA store moved in. When I first got to Williams, this store was a camera and film place, but Spring street has a strangely large turnover rate and so it’s exciting to see changes that may stay for the long term.

Ahhh, cool, so even better, two new storefronts on that stretch! I think a book store would have trouble surviving given that Water Street Books is just a block away, especially in the Amazon.com era. (Plans to make Water Street more pedestrian friendly / integrated into the commercial district are in the works, recall). Anyplace that sells good, reasonably priced food / coffee and is open late would be a welcome addition, I’m sure. As would a clothing / accessories store more geared towards a younger demographic.

Great idea! Good for MASS MoCA and a wonderful addition for Williamstown. I am a sucker for museum stores. I love books on art and design, and they are also a great place to pick up one of a kind, affordable gifts.

Sorry – I had heard the rumor but hadn’t seen the press release. Even better for MASS MoCA to go in at the other site on that side of the street, as it is less prominent, and that saves the cleaners’ space for something else. I hope that, whatever that is, it is a vibrant addition and that the MASS MoCA people will do everything they can in their new space to help link North Adams businesses and events, not just MASS MoCA, to Williamstown (I think that would help MASS MoCA in the process).

On Water Street, the listings for the Cable Mills project are up on the Harsch website, for $260,000 to $750,000. http://www.harschrealestate.com/real-estate/condos-for-sale/
There aren’t any details really, but you can look at square footage and the number of bedrooms and baths in a unit and correlate the asking prices.

As another development on Water Street, the business (but not the real estate or inventory) for The Cottage is up for sale for $225,000. http://www.altonwestall.com/rm/listings/l0026.php
I hope someone will continue the business, as it would be a real loss to Water Street and the town if it were closed (and I’d lose a reliable source of gifts for my wife and nieces). That store helps bring important traffic to the street.

And I was sad to learn that Don Westall of the real estate brokerage Alton & Westall has died unexpectedly. I hope they’ll be able to stay in business and to continue to occupy 77 Water Street despite that huge loss to the firm, and despite the rough economic times.

It’s true! MASS MoCA by Design, a satellite operation of HARDWARE The MASS MoCA Store, opened last Friday on Spring Street. We are ever-so-happy to be located in the storefront / lobby space at Images.

We talked to (and sold to!) quite a few rising Williams students this weekend – and look forward to getting more of you back in the fall. We even have an Eph on staff!

I think you’ll appreciate our selection of merchandise (you can count on me to stock our shelves with you in mind). Billing ourselves as a “Contemporary General Store,” we’ll work to have a little bit of everything in the mix.

I love books, so there will be lots. MASS MoCA is always on the cutting edge of cool, and MMxD promises to be as well. True to our roots, we’ll touch on the arts, and we can’t wait to start spotting you out and about in groovy MASS MoCA gear. Mostly, we’re about fun (and especially fun-as-affordable, fun-as-sustainable, fun-as-recycled-content, and fun-as-sourced locally).

You’re right to think we’re also hoping to steer the general public to everything exciting that’s happening on the MASS MoCA campus ten minutes down the road. There’s a summer full of great music and other performing arts events happening here. Now you have the opportunity to purchase tickets on Spring Street! …Ben Kweller, Josh Ritter, Elvis Perkins, Aimee Mann, anyone…?

And have you been to see what’s in the galleries lately? LeWitt’s been up for six months now, and I’m still awestruck and amazed each time I walk through the mile of walls newly installed in Building 7 here. Stop in to MMxD to chat us up and learn more.

I’ll definitely look for some purple-feedback on what we’re carrying, so don’t be shy! We already LOVE being on Spring Street, and hope you’ll all learn to love us back.

It’s a real plus for Williams to have evidence for all visitors to see, of the proximity and advantages of MASS MoCA. And vice versa, it should prove to be a great business move for the museum.

I also see all kinds of avenues you could explore, from what Ronit points out in how the shop could inspire room decor (how about sponsoring a contest for furniture and dorm objet d’art made from recylcled cafeteria trays, for example?), to what P’12 suggests with the consideration of transportation provided to museum events.

Do the various local attractions, like MoCA and Clark and WTF, try to work together to bring in visitors? Can you buy bundled tickets – a BerkshirePass, maybe?

The shuttle bus is an excellent idea. It’s easy enough for carless NYCers like me to get up to W’town for a weekend in the summer, but fairly hard to go anywhere once I’m there. (Yeah, I know, I should probably get Zipcar).

One night in iowa, he and I in a borrowed car
Went driving in the summer, promises in every star
Out in the distance I could hear some people laughing
I felt my heart beat back a weekends worth of sadness

There was a farmhouse that had long since been deserted
We stopped and carved our hearts into the wooden surface
We thought just for an instant we could see the future
We thought for once we knew what really was important

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home
Come home and oh, by the way
Dont you know that I could make
A dream thats barely half-awake come true
I wanted to say –
But anything I could have said
I felt somehow that you already knew

We got back in the car and listened to a dylan tape
We drove around the fields until it started getting late
And I went back to my hotel room on the highway
And he just got back in his car and drove away

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home
Come home and oh, by the way
Dont you know that I could make
A dream thats barely half-awake come true
I wanted to say – but anything I could have said
I felt somehow that you already knew

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home
Come home

Coming up close
Everything sounds like welcome home
Come home come on home